Please excuse my ignorance if this has already been posted - I didn't see anything current about it on first blush.

I bought AmigaOS 4.1 FE Classic and am running it in emulation. I know it's not a "supported" configuration but that's okay: I'm not running it as my "daily" system, I'm running it out of nostalgia and past love for the Amiga platform. As everyone is no doubt aware the memory limits are hard-coded for 256MB for a BlizzardPPC setup and 128MB for a CyberStormPPC setup. Emulation-wise the CyberstormPPC setup works much better than the BlizzardPPC setup - hard drive access times, graphically updating the screen and such. Both however are crippled by that low memory limit. I know nothing can be done for real Amigas but could the limit be relaxed for emulation? Set a new limit of say 512MB or such. Enough to run a modern web-browser without running out of memory. As for "cannibalizing" sales it would do no such thing. The market segments for emulated and modern Amiga hardware are completely different. I am not in the market for a modern Amiga, I don't have the cash, but I am - along with no doubt many others - willing to run an "Amiga LITE" in emulation and would just like a little bit more RAM. An emulated system wouldn't be used for heavy lifting, that would be the purpose of actual modern Amiga hardware. Emulated systems fall into the "masses" "Amiga 500" while modern Amigas are the "Amiga 2000's" of this time. All that has to be recognized is that they are actually different market segments and can be addressed differently.

With the purchase of Cloanto's Amiga Forever that also includes, legally, the Amiga 4000 Kickstart ROM, the CyberStormPPC ROM, and the Picasso IV ROM. So that gives a completely legal path to AmigaOS 4.1 FE Classic emulation: no shenanigans.

This has been discussed here and there, although I can't find the threads now.

If I understand it correctly, the memory limit isn't explicitly set in software, but rather a "physical" constraint of the PPC-cards (real or emulated). Since emulation isn't supported, there's also nothing that can really be done about it.

From what I've read there are two places for the memory limit. In the ROM used by the emulated PPC hardware, and this has been patched to a higher amount, and then the memory limit as defined in OS 4.1 FE. I'm sure that I've read that no matter what you set the emulated RAM to - you can set it as high as you want - OS 4.1 FE when it takes the boot after that does not recognize the increased memory.

Also, as an aside, in my opinion is seems foolish that emulation is "not supported." Not everyone has a few grand to drop on real Amiga hardware, classic or modern, but practically everyone has a decent PC. Every person who owns one of those PC's is a potential customer. Take the population of Europe, America, and such and say "if we officially supported emulation then one out of fifteen-thousand would purchase OS 4.1 FE." When you consider those populations are in the hundreds of millions that is a lot of money to be "not supported." Again, in my opinion, Hyperion shouldn't say no to that money. And, to repeat myself, with Cloanto's Amiga Forever providing ALL the required ROMs and such there is a completely legal path to get to OS 4.1 FE on a PC.

headkase wrote:Please excuse my ignorance if this has already been posted - I didn't see anything current about it on first blush.

I bought AmigaOS 4.1 FE Classic and am running it in emulation. I know it's not a "supported" configuration but that's okay: I'm not running it as my "daily" system, I'm running it out of nostalgia and past love for the Amiga platform. As everyone is no doubt aware the memory limits are hard-coded for 256MB for a BlizzardPPC setup and 128MB for a CyberStormPPC setup. Emulation-wise the CyberstormPPC setup works much better than the BlizzardPPC setup - hard drive access times, graphically updating the screen and such. Both however are crippled by that low memory limit. I know nothing can be done for real Amigas but could the limit be relaxed for emulation? Set a new limit of say 512MB or such. Enough to run a modern web-browser without running out of memory. As for "cannibalizing" sales it would do no such thing. The market segments for emulated and modern Amiga hardware are completely different. I am not in the market for a modern Amiga, I don't have the cash, but I am - along with no doubt many others - willing to run an "Amiga LITE" in emulation and would just like a little bit more RAM. An emulated system wouldn't be used for heavy lifting, that would be the purpose of actual modern Amiga hardware. Emulated systems fall into the "masses" "Amiga 500" while modern Amigas are the "Amiga 2000's" of this time. All that has to be recognized is that they are actually different market segments and can be addressed differently.

With the purchase of Cloanto's Amiga Forever that also includes, legally, the Amiga 4000 Kickstart ROM, the CyberStormPPC ROM, and the Picasso IV ROM. So that gives a completely legal path to AmigaOS 4.1 FE Classic emulation: no shenanigans.

Thank you,Bill.

You are correct that is how it is currently. That could change in a future update, but no promises.

Thanks for the link. After having bought 4.1FE I used it for about a week - it was very nice to see what a modern AmigaOS could do - but once the novelty wore off I've used it less since. The main reason for using it less is that I can't run a modern web-browser in the emulated RAM that is left over after the OS claims its chunk. If I could do so then I could very well see myself spending more time in AmigaOS because of the very fond memories I have associated with it.